Haussler and Hushovd jumping sinking ship, Schlecks to salvage Cervélo bikes?

Garmin-Transitions and the Luxembourg-based team of Andy and Fränk Schleck may unite with Cervélo TestTeam.

“I can not comment on this,” Cervélo team manager, Jean Paul van Poppel told Procycling.no.

“We have agreed not to talk about it right now. What I can say is that we have had a very good classics campaign the past two years. We can continue extremely well even without a classification rider with us. It allows us to focus even more in that direction.”

Cervélo will lose Carlos Sastre at the end of the season to team Geox. The Spaniard was the team’s biggest recruit two years ago when it started; he had just won the 2008 Tour de France with CSC and gave Cervélo the boost it needed to debut in 2009.

Sastre announced 10 days ago, August 16, he will join Geox next season.

Cervélo has been at a standstill. While other teams are preparing for next season, the second division team has neither signed new riders nor applied for first division, ProTour status.

Garmin has only signed one ProTour rider, Christophe Le Mevel, and is interested in Cervélo’s Heinrich Haussler, Thor Hushovd, Andreas Klier and Roger Hammond, according to news reports.

The Schlecks’ new team, managed by Brian Nygaard, needs riders to receive a first division, ProTour licence from the UCI on November 20. According to news reports, Schlecks’ team has signed already 20 riders, including Brice Feillu, Linus Gerdemann, Joost Posthuma, Jakob Fuglsang, Stuart O’Grady, Jens Voigt and Dominic Klemme. However, the team needs more riders and bikes – enter Cervélo.

Not counting Sastre, Haussler, Hushovd, Klier and Hammond, Cervélo TestTeam has 20 riders on offer: Brett Lancaster, Daniel Lloyd, Davide Appollonio, Dominique Rollin, Edward King, Gabriel Rasch, Ignatas Konovalovas, Iñigo Cuesta, Jeremy Hunt, Joao Correia, Joaquin Novoa Mendez, Marcel Wyss, Martin Reimer, Oscar Pujol, Philip Deignan, Stefan Denifl, Theo Bos, Volodimir Gustov, Xavier Florencio and Xavier Tondo.

Plus, Cervélo, a bike company, will want to continue at the top level of cycling. Andy and Fränk Schleck are already familiar with the bikes, having ridden them from 2003 to 2008 with team CSC.

Team Cervélo was set to make an announcement last night, but has yet to do so.